The present invention relates to stable, preferably translucent, more preferably clear, odor-absorbing and fungal controlling compositions, articles of manufacture, and/or method of use. These compositions, articles of manufacture, and/or methods of use are designed to refresh and protect these garments without the use of harsh chemicals or cleaning procedures that could weaken or degrade the performance of the garments.
The odor-absorbing composition is designed to control odors caused by a broad spectrum of organic odoriferous materials, which may, or may not, contain reactive functional groups, and to preferably remain shelf stable for a substantial period of time. The compositions and methods are for use on ballistic fabrics, especially clothing made of ballistic fabrics, such as bullet proof vests and the like, and protective garments, such as those worn by athletes or workers in hazardous environments, in order to restore and/or maintain freshness by reducing malodor without the need for washing or dry cleaning.
At present garments made of ballistic fabrics, are washed by hand with cold water and mild detergent, rinsing thoroughly to remove all traces of detergent. Rinsing properly prohibits the accumulation of residual soap film, which can absorb water and reduce the ballistic resistance of certain types of ballistic fabric. While such a process is time consuming and laborious, it is necessary as machine washing or drying, either in the home or commercially can be damaging to the fabric, ultimately affecting its ballistic performance. Furthermore, some detergents, dry cleaning solvents, bleach and starch may reduce the garment""s level of ballistic resistance and most manufacturers strongly recommend against their use. Furthermore, most manufacturers of ballistic fabric strongly recommend that ballistic fabrics never be submerged in water or dried outdoors, even in the shade, as ultraviolet light is known to cause degradation of certain types of ballistic fabric.
Similarly, the care and cleaning of protective garments, such as, kneepads, shin guards, is laborious and time consuming.
A problem common to both protective garments and garments made of ballistic fabric, is sweat from the wearer. If the sweat is not removed from these garments, over time fungal and/or bacterial growth results. This fungal and/or bacterial growth ultimately degrades the protective properties of the garment; results in noxious odors and possibly even results in long-term health issues for the wearer.
Consequently, there is needed a way to reduce or eliminate the hand washing of ballistic fabric and protective articles, retard or eliminate fungal and/or bacterial growth, while maintaining the ballistic or protective properties of a fabric or garment.
The present invention relates to a stable, preferably translucent, more preferably clear, sanitizing, deodorizing and refreshing composition, sanitizing, deodorizing and refreshing methods and articles of manufacture that use such sanitizing, deodorizing and refreshing composition, preferably for use on inanimate surfaces, especially protective garments or ballistic fabrics comprising:
(A). optionally, an effective amount to absorb malodors, typically from about 0.01% to about 20% by weight of the composition, with concentrated compositions which are meant to be diluted containing from about 3% to about 20%, preferably from about 5% to about 10% by weight of the composition, and, for more dilute xe2x80x9cusage conditionsxe2x80x9d compositions, a range of from about 0.01% to about 5%, preferably from about 0.1% to about 3%, more preferably from about 0.5% to about 2%, by weight of the usage composition, of solubilized, a mild, non-fabric-damaging malodor control agent, preferably a functionally labile cyclodextrin.
(B). optionally, an effective amount to improve the performance of the composition, preferably from about 0.05% to about 5%, more preferably from about 0.1% to about 3%, and even more preferably from about 0.2% to about 1.5%, by weight of the usage composition, of surfactant, preferably a cyclodextrin compatible surfactant, that preferably provides a surface tension of from about 20 dyne/cm to about 60 dyne/cm, preferably from about 20 dyne/cm to about 45 dyne/cm (with concentrated compositions having a level of from about 0.1% to about 15%, preferably from about 0.2% to about 8%, more preferably from about 0.3% to about 5%, by weight of the concentrated solution, of surfactant);
(C). optionally, an effective amount, to kill, or reduce the growth of microbes, of cyclodextrin compatible and water soluble antimicrobial active, preferably from about 0.001% to about 0.8%, more preferably from about 0.002% to about 0.3%, even more preferably from about 0.003% to about 0.2%, by weight of the usage composition, and preferably selected from the group consisting of halogenated compounds, cyclic nitrogen compounds, quaternary compounds, and phenolic compounds (with concentrated compositions having a level of from about 0.003% to about 2%, preferably from about 0.01% to about 1.2%, more preferably from about 0.1% to about 0.8%, by weight of the concentrated solution, of cyclodextrin-compatible and water soluble antimicrobial active);
(D). optionally, but preferably, an effective amount to provide olfactory effects of perfume, typically from about 0.003% to about 0.5%, preferably from about 0.01% to about 0.3%, more preferably from about 0.05% to about 0.2%, by weight of the usage composition of hydrophilic perfume, containing at least about 50%, preferably at least about 60%, more preferably at least about 60%, even more preferably at least about 70%, and yet more preferably at least about 80%, by weight of the perfume of perfume ingredients that have a ClogP of less than about 3.5 and optionally, a minor amount of perfume ingredients selected from the group consisting of ambrox, bacdanol, benzyl salicylate, butyl anthranilate, cetalox, damascenone, alpha-damascone, gamma-dodecalactone, ebanol, herbavert, cis-3-hexenyl salicylate, alpha-ionone, beta-ionone, alpha-isomethylionone, lilial, methyl nonyl ketone, gamma-undecalactone, undecylenic aldehyde, and mixtures thereof;
(E). optionally, but preferably, from about 0.01% to about 3%, more preferably from about 0.05% to about 1%, and even more preferably from about 0.1% to about 0.5%, by weight of the usage composition of low molecular weight polyol;
(F). optionally, an effective amount to assist in antimicrobial action of aminocarboxylate chelator; preferably from about 0.001% to about 0.3%, preferably from about 0.01% to about 0.1%, more preferably from about 0.02% to about 0.05%, by weight of the usage composition;
(G). optionally, but preferably, an effective amount of metallic salt, preferably from about 0.1% to about 10%, more preferably from about 0.2% to about 8%, even more preferably from about 0.3% to about 5% by weight of the usage composition, especially water soluble copper and/or zinc salts, for improved odor benefit;
(H) optionally, an effective amount of enzyme, from about 0.0001% to about 0.5%, preferably from about 0.001% to about 0.3%, more preferably from about 0.005% to about 0.2% by weight of the usage composition, for improved odor control benefit;
(I). optionally, an effective amount of solubilized, water-soluble, antimicrobial preservative, preferably from about 0.0001% to about 0.5%, more preferably from about 0.0002% to about 0.2%, most preferably from about 0.0003% to about 0. 1%, by weight of the composition;
(J) optionally, an effective amount of cyclodextrin-compatible fabric wrinkle control agent, preferably from about 0.05% to about 5%, more preferably from about 0.2% to about 3%, even more preferably from about 0.3% to about 2%, by weight of the usage composition; and
(K). optionally, a carrier;
the composition preferably containing at least one of (B) and (C) and preferably being essentially free of any material that would soil or stain fabric under usage conditions, and/or preferably having a pH of more than about 3, more preferably more than about 3.5. Further, the composition of the present invention may have a pH of from about 3 to about 11, preferably from about 4 to about 9, more preferably from about 5 to about 65, and a viscosity of less then about 100 cP, more peferably of less than about 50 cP, more preferably less than about 15 cP.
The present invention also relates to concentrated compositions, wherein the level of cyclodextrin is from about 3% to about 20%, more preferably from about 5% to about 10%, by weight of the composition which are diluted to form compositions with the usage concentrations of cyclodextrin of, e.g., from about 0.1% to about 5%, by weight of the diluted composition, as given hereinabove, which are the xe2x80x9cusage conditionsxe2x80x9d. Specific levels of other optional ingredients in the concentrated composition can readily be determined from the desired usage composition and the desired degree of concentration. These concentrated compositions can be used in a process for preparing large volumes of treatment composition in which water is added, either in a separate container, or in the container of the article of manufacture comprising the spray means.
The present invention also relates to the compositions incorporated into a spray dispenser to create an article of manufacture that can facilitate treatment of articles and/or surfaces with said compositions containing uncomplexed cyclodextrin and other optional ingredients at a level that is effective, yet is not discernible when dried on the surfaces. The spray dispenser comprises manually activated and non-manual operated spray means and a container containing the odor-absorbing composition.
The present invention also comprises the use of small particle diameter droplets of the compositions herein, even those which do not contain (B) or (C), to treat surfaces, especially fabrics, to provide superior performance, e.g., the method of applying the compositions to fabrics, etc. as very small particles (droplets) preferably having average particle sizes (diameters) of from about 10 xcexcm to about 120 xcexcm, more preferably from about 20 xcexcm to about 100 xcexcm.
In another aspect of the invention herein, compositions that contain combinations of water soluble antimicrobial actives, especially those described hereinafter, and especially the bis-biguanide alkane compounds described hereinafter, and the surfactants described hereinafter, especially the polyalkylene oxide polysiloxanes described hereinafter provide superior antimicrobial action in aqueous solutions, either by themselves, or in combination with the other ingredients, including the cyclodextrin.